Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £10,995 to £16,405
Handsome-looking hatchback with good space, nicely finished interior and efficient new 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engines. Promises to be good value.
Lumpy ride on the biggest wheels, engines could be quieter at speed, no external boot release, optional sat nav has ultra-vague instructions.
A vast improvement over the unloved Stilo but no more than an average car in its class.
Price range likely to be £10,000-£15,000. On sale in UK June 2007.
The Bravo has a two-stage driver's airbag whose inflation is tailored to the impact's severity, plus up to six other airbags including an optional driver's knee bag. It can also have active head restraints which move forward in a rear impact, so lessening whiplash injury.
All of the above has helped Fiat achieve an impressive five-star rating for adult occupant safety in the Euro NCAP crash tests, with three stars for child protection and two (out of four) for a pedestrian impact.
Of course, it's clearly better not to have the accident in the first place, and the usual ABS, EBD and ESP braking and stability aids help keep you in control. There's a hill-holder feature within the braking system, too, which maintains pressure for up to a second and a half after the driver releases the brake pedal until the Bravo accelerates forwards (when pointing uphill) or backwards (pointing downhill), so making hill starts easier.
An alarm system is optional.
